Vegan replacement

Thanks Mike

I doubt about that. Replacing such a unique ingredient as buttermilk with a 100% vegetable based material is difficult. Roy

Eric Jorgensen wrote in message news:...

That is interesting Eric.This led me to think further. Potassium acid tartrate is derived from wine manufacture. It is possibly suitable for vegans. But I disagree to your idea that tartaric acid the main acid component of the cream of tartar is similar to lactic acid the main acidulant in sour buttermilk.. They are different acids with each having a unique taste effect. Tartaric acid had a rough or hard sour taste while lactic acid had milder taste. Now if the original poster will subscribe to this cream of tartar idea he will have the difficulty of attaining the desired tartness by dissolving a certain amount of tartar in water as a substitute for buttermilk. It will also lack the flavour components of buttermilk. The nearest milk substitute for dairy milk is soymilk. Then the acid or tangy taste can be attained with this acidulant(cream of tartar) and can possibly be added to the soymilk; but there is a limitation as acids added are prone to precipitate the soy proteins easier than milk proteins. This is one of the problems with soy based yoghurt that does not have the same stability as the dairy based yoghurt and had shorter shelf life. In these soy yoghurt the use of similar milk based lactobacteria produces lactic acid in the soy yoghurt. Now as the soymilk is deficient in sugars similar to milk, the Japanese recommend the addition of honey for faster fermentation and minimal precipitation or syneresis. Instead of breaking down the lactose to glucose and galactose ;honey being a mixture of glucose and fructose will provide the glucose(an even fructose) directly to the needs of the vigorous microbial fermentation.The resulting flavor profile may differ slightly if compared to the dairy milk buttermilk. Therefore the closest alternative for buttermilk is the soy yoghurt which can possibly provide similar functionality. As shown in Food chemistry tables:Food Chemisty by Belitz and Grosch

2nd edition (page 491) The buttermilk contains 0.86% lactic acid and yoghurt contains 1.08 % lactic acid. Deducing the similar acidity characteristics for soy yoghurt, then; Then the substitution of 80 % quantity of soy yoghurt could be an alternative to buttermilk with the same resulting acidity or tartness. The remaining problem is that the system of producing the soy yoghurt is inoculating the soy milk with bacterial culture derived from dairy milk which will result in a product that is not suitable for vegans. The only possibility for that is to purchase a milk free or non milk derived lactobacteria with the same functionality as the dairy based lacto bacteria from a bacterial culture bank and make the soy yoghurt himself. Quite a lot of effort. The simplest way is to buy vegan type of soy yoghurt from suppliers like this: substitute that for the buttermilk .Roy

You're welcome. As a followup comment, it depends on how important the buttermilk taste and mouth feel are to your recipe. At one end of the scale are things like buttermilk pancakes and buttermilk and soda based cakes and quickbreads. At the other end of the scale is a buttermilk pie.

For the pancakes and cakes, the actual buttermilk taste isn't that important. You need some added acidity, and the vinegar or lemon juice trick should work well.

For a buttermilk pie, or other recipes where the taste and mouthfeel of buttermilk is central to the dishes taste, this trick won't work at all. Roy's suggestion of a soy yogurt sounds like a good one there.

Good luck, Mike